Women love to be afraid. Women are afraid — they know how. What women are not afraid of!
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Philip Zimbardo conducted a demonstrative experiment as part of research on gender differences (Sean Bourne. Gender Psychology. Prime-Eurosign, 2008. C.3.). It was attended by students studying psychology, distinguished by a fairly high intelligence and poise in judgments. The experiment was as follows.
Women can be afraid, it is customary for women to be afraid, it is beneficial for women to be afraid.
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The subjects were asked to imagine themselves as the parents of the child they were “holding” in their arms. Half of the students were asked to choose a child’s name from a list containing three female names, and the other half were asked to choose a name from three male names. (Students in each group were in the dark as to which choice was offered to their fellows in the other group.) Suddenly, a bearded stranger appeared in the auditorium where the subjects were with a very bright and beautiful music box containing inside a funny clown who suddenly jumped out . The child in the hands of the students carefully “watched” how the uncle winds up the toy and “listened” to its soothing melody. But then the moment came when the music stopped abruptly and the clown jumped out of the box.
After the incident, each “parent” was asked the following question: “What was your child’s reaction to what was happening?”
From their list of response options, the majority chose “shocked,” regardless of the gender of their child. But the most interesting thing happened when these «parent-student» indicated the subsequent reaction of their baby. An order of magnitude more girls than boys rated their child’s reaction as «fear», while more boys than girls saw «curiosity» in their baby’s eyes!» See →